CSS - Css Design With Float

look at my site. it is very boxy and almost TOO structured. is there a design trick i can use to mix it up a little? specific examples would be greatly appreciated.

subject isn't too good

anyhow.. i have 4 cells

__ __
|1 | |2 |
--- ---
__ __
|3| |4 |
--- ---

2 and 4 are said to float right, such that 1 and 3 define the height of the page..

but.. when the contents of 2 go LONGER than the contents of 1, number 4 doesn't float right properly.. instead this happens

__ __
|1 | |2 |
--- | |
--- | |
|4| ---
---
__
|3|
---


do you see that? 4 tries to float right, but since it's called underneath 1, and 2 is extended, floating right relative to the page doesn't make it ACTUALLY float right

any thoughts that will render this properly? (namely that cells 1 and 3 will inherit the height of 2 and 4 somehow?)

Hi There -

Am converting another design from tables, working with a CMS (Drupal) and an existing CSS / table combination that I didn't write and have no choice about.

Think of the header as having three sections. The top section has logo on the left, search box on the right. Rounded corners. I'm cool with that section.

Then there's a space. Created a div for the space. Love the space. Problems with the space in IE. Will go into it later.

Then there's the next section. Rounded corners. Contains the entire page.

On the left is a pulldown menu, about 1 cm from the top. On the right is a tabbed menu. This menu has flexible height. It needs to be right up against the bottom with the menu below it. Call this section the tabbed menu section.

Third section. Immediately below that is a bar menu like the one Apple's got. Looks like a metal bar with divisions. Call this primary links.

----------

First, the space between. In IE, when you roll over the bar menu, the space disappears. Won't come back.

Initially, in the second section, floated the pulldown menu left and the tabbed menu right. That worked fine, except that the tabbed menu had a width of 100% and pushed up the pulldown menu so the section was too wide. When I put it to 65%, all hell broke loose with the bar menu in the third section below it and bits of it snuck up into the second section.

If I left it alone, and left the tabbed menu at 100%, when I checked over its container with firebug, it said that it was being affected by the primary links. I figured that out also because the background for that container was a really weird color that I finally found in the background of the navigation id and changed to white. Primary was overlapping it so I couldn't see it with firebug.

So after fiddling with several clearing methods, I gave up and decided to try a table. Table worked fine, and the second section looks good except that there's a one pixel space between the tabbed menu and the bar menu.

---------

It is my greatest wish right now to be able to float the pulldown to the left, the tabbed menu to the right and have the primary links stay below. I wish I could get the space to work and I wish for a clear understanding of it all so I can then figure out where to put the corners.

Anyone who can enlighten me on this would have my undying gratitude. I've been working on this all day and the deadline's tomorrow.

Code:

<div id="top part"
logo and searchbox
</div>

<div>
that pesky space that disappears in IE when roll over primary links
</div>

<div id=navcontainer>
dropdown and tabbed menu
</div>

<div id="navigation" class="menu> <!-- couldn't find the menu class in the css -->
<div id="primary" class="clear-block">
contains barmenu - very fussy
</div>
</div>

Here's the relevant CSS:

Code:

div#navigation {
  background: #fff url(../images/blue/menu-bg.png) 100% 100% repeat-x;
}


#primary {
  line-height: 30px;
}

#primary ul {
  padding:0;
  margin:0;
  list-style:none;
}

#primary li {
  display:inline;
}

#primary a {
  font-weight:bold;
  display:block;
  float:left;
  padding:0px 14px 0px 14px;
  margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px;
  font-size: 95%;
}

#primary a {
  background-position:0% 0px;
}

#primary a:hover {
  text-decoration: none;
  background-position:0% -42px;
}

#primary a.active {
  background-position: 0% -84px;
}

#primary a {
  background: url(../images/blue/menu-div.png) 100% 0 repeat-y;
  color:#666666;
  font-size: 120%;
  font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
}

#primary a:hover {
  color: 666666;
  background: #B8B8B8;
}

#primary a.active {
  color: 666666;
  background: #B8B8B8;
}

This is my first try at css and i have been at it about a week on and off. I have tried to use examples from here and the o'reilly CSS cookbook. I want to create a two column row of pictures with a caption. I selected DIV as the tool (my css is below). The container DIV looks great. I want the div.float, however, to start a second row when a third picture is added and to continue thereafter with successive two column rows. Unfortunately, each of my rows contain only one picture.

here is my css style sheet. A demonstration of the problem can be seen at:

http://www.yourline-online.com/demo05/?How_to_create_pages
Code:

div.float {
    float: left;
    BORDER-RIGHT: #808080 2px solid;
    PADDING-RIGHT: 2px;
    BORDER-TOP: #808080 2px solid;
    PADDING-LEFT: 2px;
    FONT-WEIGHT: lighter;
    FONT-SIZE: medium;
    PADDING-BOTTOM: 20px;
    MARGIN: 16px 2%;
    BORDER-LEFT: #808080 2px solid;
    COLOR: #000000;
    PADDING-TOP: 2px;
    BORDER-BOTTOM: #808080 2px solid;
    HEIGHT: 200px;
    WIDTH: 150px;
    BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff;
    TEXT-DECORATION: none
  }
  
div.float p {
   text-align: center;
   }
div.container {
  border: 2px dashed #333;
  background-color: #ffe;
  }
div.spacer {
  clear: both;
  }

MY HTML is like this:
Code:

H1>How to create pages</H1>
<P>The headings are used for splitting up the content file. An H1, H2 or H3 heading will dynamically split the document into new pages in the table of contents. An H4-heading is used as a heading within a page. See the following pages...<BR></P>
<P></P>
<DIV class=container>
<DIV class=spacer></DIV>
<DIV class=float><IMG height=100 alt="image 1" src="image1.gif" width=100> 
<P>caption 1</P></DIV>
<DIV class=spacer></DIV>
<DIV class=float><IMG height=100 alt="image 2" src="image2.gif" width=100>
<P>caption 2</P></DIV>
<DIV class=spacer>
<DIV class=float><IMG height=100 alt="image 3" src="http://www.yourline-online.com/demo05/image3.gif" width=100>
<P>caption 3</P></DIV>
<DIV class=spacer></DIV></DIV></DIV>

Hi all,

I have a bit of an odd situation (prob not odd if you seen it before but I have no clue why its doing it!).... I have my webpage:

http://www.houseofhawkins.com/index.html

which works great in IE. the part in question is the menu tabs at the top. Within IE they keep the width I have given them.. In firefox they only go to the width of the text.

They are links with the following CSS attached:

div#Header #MenuSection a.MenuTab {

PHP Code:
 filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Gradient(endColorstr='#A8DBA8', startColorstr='#A4B7A4', gradientType='0');
    font-weight: bold;
    text-align: center;
    font-size: 1.3em;
    background-color: #BCD6BC;
    border-style: solid;
    border-width: 1px;
    border-color: #A5BEA5 #BCD6BC #BCD6BC #A5BEA5;
    margin: 0 5px 0 2px;
    height: 1.5em;
    width: 140px;    
    padding: 5px 1px 1px 1px;
}

div#Header #MenuSection {
    float:left;
    margin-top: 30px;
} 





here is the HTML code for that part of the page.

PHP Code:
<div ID="MenuSection">
                    <a Class="SelectedMenuTab" Title="You are currently viewing the Home page">Home</a>
                    <a Class="MenuTab" href="" title="Curriculum Vitae for Jonathan Hawkins, Author of House of Hawkins">CV</a>
                    <a Class="MenuTab" href="http://houseofhawkins.com/projects/index.html" title="Portfolio of Work created by Jon Hawkins">Portfolio</a>
                    <a Class="MenuTab" href="" title="Online Photo Gallery of Jon, friends and family">Photo Gallery</a>
                    <a Class="MenuTab" href="http://houseofhawkins.com/games.html" title="Games created by House of Hawkins">Games</a>
                </div>
            <div style="clear:left"> </div> 





I just dont get why firefox wont be nice and give me the width I ask for... the oddest bit is if I put float:left into the menutab part they do work!

I wish to understand why its like this... I have attached the CSS and the file if that helps anyone.

Thanks for the help and advice.